


Changeling Testers

by Quill18



Series: House Eisenhardt [3]
Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Jewish Character, Disabled Character, Drabble Collection, Erik is a Father, Ficlet Collection, Gen, Genosha, Nonbinary Character, Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-02-15 22:46:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 5,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13041069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quill18/pseuds/Quill18
Summary: Non fic-canon drabbles and ficlets as I work on building characterizations and family dynamics for a House of M/Genosha AU. Posting here to make it easier for my friends to read, lol. Not in chronological order.





	1. Hazard Lights

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is OC-heavy.

Magnus strode into hallway leading to his room. The magnetic fields felt disturbed, as he lingered out in the hallway, right before his door. Usually, they felt still, strong, the all-metal enviroment charged from his frequent manipulating of the material. 

Electricity ran through his nerves, the nervous sparks sweeping down his skin. It reminded him of Lorna's manifesting during her teenage years. Air thick with tense charge, roiling fields, magnetism lashing out through the toils of her adolescence. 

But Lorna always felt strong, confident, the fields pulsing out in unafeared waves. This felt tentative, afraid. Anxious. Fields fighting against the young one producing it.

Chaim. 

The newest and youngest child of his, outside of the manufactured embryos, he had recovered in recent years. (He forced himself to stop thinking of his progeny, suffering in the silent frost, sleeping in eternal stasis, unawokened to him with his older children to care for, a species to protect, a country to run, a prototype to search for. The prototype was found, a broken manufactured child, the little one daring to rebuild their body, rehabilitated and fostered by a cursed transhumanist lab, emancipated like all troublesome mutant children yearning to break free of humanity's cages)  
Broken hebrew and screeched out english, shattered the silence, breaking Magnus out of his broken reverie. 

"Why, why, why am I even trying to do thIS? " Something slammed against the door and dropped down with a thud. 

Smaller clinks rang out through the wall, the smaller items having been tossed by uncontrolled fields. 

"Shite, didn't mean to do that."  
Magnus had enough. The metal door swung open, hitting the ironing board that been flung there. His fingers brushed over the metal mezuzah slantedly affixed to the door post, its metal melded into the frame. No dents, no damage. 

He blinked away a memory of Lorna. (His favored daughter laughing, as he taught her the blessing and how to affix it to her bedroom door with their shared gifts)

Chaim's eyes widened, fear spreading across the youth's face. 

They,

(never she or he, the english pronouns denied by his child with bitter fury)  
attempted to scramble back with their arms, away from Magnus, cybernetic fins twitching uselessly, the carbon fiber inhibitor cuffs laid on the floor, hazard lights flaring crimson. 

Family photos angled askew on his book shelves, scattered among his watches, and hung precariously on the wall, the frames undone. 

He noted that Chaim must've attempted to practice their gift, and thought that snooping among his personal photos was a good idea. Curiousity about they family they should have grew up in? 

 

Magnus held up his hand, willing the nanoweave blankets to gather around his offspring, bundling his troubled child. The wardrobe door creaked open as the ironing board slid itself back in, and the rest of his personal items silently went back to their places. 

The fins stopped twitching, the light dulled to a sickly yellow.

Chaim didn't meet his eyes. 

Magnus sat on the edge of the bed.

He ignored the flinch that had happened when he raised his hand. Just another unfortunate trait he had seen in so many lab-born.


	2. Chava/Miracle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chava aka Plague is very loosely based off this canon au character: http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Plague_(Earth-1043)
> 
> Though I changed her power to producing nanites.

"We should fight in underground rings. Win some money."

"Don't be daft." Chava, aka Plague looked over her shoulder towards her technical sibling as she typed up some paperwork. 

Ze was really a work of transhumanist art, a miracle of life. Rehabilitated by Genesis Labs, her sibling had chosen aquatic cybernetics as a form of therapy and self-reclaimation of zir body. The cybernetic fishtail with its hovertech also doubled as a mobility aid, since X18 had lost zir legs from a failed experiment. What experiment, she didn't know. Still, it was a miracle, ze and the other kids had left Transigen with any form of sanity. 

Said miracle was floating behind her, lazily flipping through a book on nanotechnology that she had written while listening to a stolen headset from Pietro.

"No, really. It'll piss off our genetic donor." 

X-18 remarked, dropping zir voice into an eerie mimicry of their shared father.

"Both of you are far too precious to me, to risk hurting yourselves. Neither of you are ready. Don't dirty yourself. This isn't proper. " 

Zir voice raised back up to zir usual tenor. 

“Pffft, fucker doesn't know the scientists took bets on me and the other labkids. Come on? Please, it will be fun!"

X-18 looked at her with wide piscine eyes, eyes dark like the fathomless sea.


	3. Elevators

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Labcreated mutants don't like small spaces. Microwave has Chayyim as a legal name.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M STUCK IN AN ELEVATOR WITH YOU!!!!"

Short rapid breaths tore through the air.

Microwave hyper-ventilated, tail fin slapping against the on the thick metal walls. A titanium plated fist smacked against it. The teenager was about to smash zir head against the wall, only for Erik's magnetic powers to stop zir forehead from hitting the wall.

"thewallsareclosingin, Icantescape, ohgod, illbegood, illbegood, getmeout get me out GETMEOUTGETMEOUT!!!"

  
"Chayyim, calm down." Magnus ordered. Voice cutting through Microwave's panic.

"I can't. The mutant slid down the wall, clawed hands running through zir hair, blood streaking down zir face as ze dragged zir claws down zir face. Body paint got ruined. Ugly screechy sounds, as ze closed zir eyes, sobbing.

"Chayyim!"

Strong magnetic fields pryed zir claws away from zir flesh, wrenching the mutant's arms against the walls. Magnus curled around his offspring, stroking ze hair and wiping off blood with his pocket square.

The young teenager was too distraught to fight back.

"Liebling, liebling, little one....your safe."

Raising an outstretched hand, Erik twisted his magnetic fields, tearing the elevator wall open, fresh air rushed in.

The teenager flopped over onto zir belly, exhausted from the panic attack.

"I want to go home."


	4. Camping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The social worker suggests camping as family therapy.

"'M' not cold." There was only one blanket and like hell was X-18 sharing one with zir genestock, Magnus Eisenhardt. 

"Chayyim." 

Said genestock was underneath it and trying to get zir to share and huddle in the body warmth. 

"Nooooo." X-18 shook zir head, claws unsheathed and hands raised in an attempt to placate the other mutant with irritatingly overactive paternal instincts. 

"Chayyim. I'm going to count to ten. I can sleep without a blanket, but I'm not letting you sleep cold and....nude." The old man's face wrinkled in disapproval as he looked away. 

Ugh. 

"Go camping. She said. It would be good for you, she said." X-18 rolled zir eyes and huffed.

"Don't need your stupid blanket. I've slept in waters colder then this." 

The genestock fixated on zir with a cold flat stare of disapproval. 

"Bova is a qualifed mutant family therapist and social worker, Chayyim. Disrespect for her will not be tolerated. As for your "sleeping in colder waters, not in my presence, my liebling."

X-18 ignored zir genestock and floated over to the farthest corner of the tent. With a dusty plop, ze landed on the thera-ridge. 

"Chayyim, look at me when I"m talking to you." 

Ze kept ignoring zir genetic source. With a quiet click, the anti-grav drives shut off. With the genestock irritatingly insisting on charging zir tail batteries, power source was at 90 percent. Ze redirected the power to ze internal heaters to warm up zir leg remants. 

Closing zir eyes, X-18 concentrated on zir control over microwaves to heat up the modified extended therma-ridge to a toasty warmth that could be slept on. Ze could feel the metal slowly warming up. 

A brush of knuckles against zir face broke ze concentration. "Darling, I told you to listen to me." The genestock said softly, trying to entice zir to behave for once. 

Warming up metal wasn't easy and required calm focus. X-18 snapped at the paternal irritation. 

"I WAS WARMING UP THE THERA-RIDGE YOU ASS. SOME OF US USE OUR POWERS FOR USEFUL THINGS YOU KNOW?!" 

Owwwwww. X-18 moaned after a heavy-weighted blanket was flung at zir face and the genestock angrily zipped open the tent and stomped out.


	5. Five Am

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tate is yiddish for dad, according to google translate.

As a father, giggling was never a good sign. Especially at five am, long before the roosters crowed and the first signs of light streaked through the sky. 

Magnus heavily breathed and exhaled through pursed lips. In. Out. In. Out. 

Two of his offspring laughed underneath the bed. He stretched out his magnetic fields, noting on what they picked up on. 

Cans....a lot of it. There was walls of it all around him, built up onto disciplined rows.A roof of cans caged him into his bed. 

Erik's eyes shot open and he shot out of bed, cans floating and orbiting him. 

Quicksilver dashed out from underneath his bed, a very familiar fish child in their arms. 

"CHAAAAYYYYYIM!!!!

"Ze was just practicing, Tate!!"


	6. Yiddish Practice.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yiddish practice. I used google translate for this.

"Chayyim, get off the ceiling." 

"KEYN!! (No) 

Magnus glared at his errant offspring, hands on his hips. The little one had decided to magnetize zirself to the underside of the plane ceiling, arms tucked under zir torso, tail stretched out. 

It would be adorable if it wasn't infuriating. 

"Liebling, this isn't proper." 

"The fucking chair isn't large enough." Microwave hissed out, tail fin slapping against the ceiling, spines flaring up in warning. 

"Language, Chayyim. No english." 

"Really?!" 

Magnus nodded in approval despite zir eye rolling. " Di shtul iz nisht groys genug." (The chair isn't large enough )

"Now release yourself before I do it for you." 

Before Magnus had to wrench his offspring free, his little one pried zirself off with a plop and hovered back down to the floor. With a sticking noise and a smug grin, Microwave schmacked zirself onto the dirty floor, magnetized to it.


	7. Foreign Art

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based off on how my friends sometimes send me hentai via the phone.

"Chayyim, the hell is this? " 

"That's my phone! Give it back!!!" 

Magnus looked flushed, pale skin turning red. Ze was glad ze did not inherit that particular trait from zir genestock. He looked away, the screen glowed with depictions of very enthusiastic beings of far too many tentacles....

"Uh...foreign art."

"....foreign art that my friend sent me...." 

Technically true....

Ze was going to kill Laura. That fridge magnet was going to pay for this.

Ooooh yes, ze was going to leave her stuck to the most grimiest, nastiest fridge ever.

Ze did not want to explain what hentai was to zir genestock.


	8. Transigen/Force Fields

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning for child abuse and experimentation.

"Okay, sweetie, we need you to hit the ball, okay? " 

X-18, age 7, looked at her with tearful eyes. 

"Sweetie, we just need you to make a shield and bounce the ball off, okay? It isn't hard sweetheart, its just a little forcefield." 

She tried to ignored the bruises on the kid's chest. It wasn't a kid, it was a test subject. She just talked like this because they seemed to be respond better. 

"Sweetheart?"

"Make it stop, please? I can't do this." 

"Just try one more time, sweetheart. You want to have dinner, don't you?"


	9. Daken/Practice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a small character study.

"Dude, what are you doing? " 'Waves cocked zir head at zir lab brother, Daken. 

The feral mutant scratched up the pine with his bone claws. 

Daken just grunted at zir, piercing the pine tree with his claws and then slashing it up with flurries of round house kicks with his foot claws. 

"Practicing." 

Sap stuck to Daken, coating his bone claws with grime, splinters, and bits of old bark.

"Nasty, I see infections coming, your healing factor doesn't cover everything." Microwave said, zir eyes squinted in disgust and finspines lowering in squick. 

"I have it covered, 'Waves." Daken smirked and started licking the sap off his claws, pink tongue slurping up the grime and bark bits off.


	10. Nina and 'Waves/Can't Fix It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning for mention of experimenting on children and starvation. Nina here is a high-level empath, who can use it to influence and understand animals. Since humans/mutants are technically animals...her gift extends to them as well.

"You can fix it right?" 

Nina folded her arms and glared at her idiot fish....sibling....thing. Unlike the rest of her family and their chaotic emotions, this sibling felt...eerie, a void, bereft of emotion. Tate had said the lab had engineered some kind of psychic resistance into Chayyim, but still it felt...wrong. 

"Nope."

"What? Tate can!" 

Chayyim huffed and rolled zir eyes, blowing hair out of zir face. Nina didn't want to admit it but ze looked very unamused.

"He's also a high-tier mutant who has everyone kissing his ass due to how powerful he is, Nina." 

"It's just a dent! A DENT! Lorna was popping out dents at age six!" 

Shit, maybe she shouldn't have said that. 

Chayyim got into her face, looming over her as ze hovered. 

"At age six, I was dragging metal plates of food through mazes I couldn't visually see. If I failed, I starved.

I starved a lot, Nina.

So fuck off and get your sister to fix it."


	11. Genosha-Con/Spanish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Erik reveals to startled labkids in which he knows Spanish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spanish translation was provided to by my friend, I dont speak/write/read it.

Microwave stared at the available rooms on the screen in horror. 

Two rooms. 

Only two rooms. Everything else was full. Genosha-con started tomorrow and everyone needed a place to sleep and to store their things. Amp was staying at a rented workshop. While Rictor, Gabby, Daken, and Laura were staying in another room. 

"Okay, looks like I'm staying with my friends." Ze didn't look zir genestock in the eye, not wanting to be around him, let alone the /whole convention/. 

"Uh....'Waves". Laura chatted to zir in Spanish. 

"No puedes. Avalanche y Logan, mis padres, estan visitamos con nos. (You can't. Avalanche and Logan, our parents, are staying with us." )

Microwave paled.

"Esta bien. Chayyim vivirá conmigo. (That is fine. Chayyim will stay with me.") Magnus replied, interrupting the conversation as he pulled out a stack of fresh crisp bills. 

Both Laura and Microwave turned, responding both at once. "Entiendes Español?! (You know Spanish?!") 

Magnus flipped through his pile of cash, counting the amount needed to pay for the rooms. "Por su puesto. Mas linguas tienen mas utíl. (Of course, being a polyglot is extremely useful.)"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daken usually wouldn't room with Logan, with despising him and all, but he's putting up with him because he misses his sisters. It's an AU, so his characterization will be different. I really need to write about Logan reacting to an nerd convention, LMAO. And Daken suffering through it all. All the labkids know Spanish since Transigen was located in Mexico.


	12. Genosha-Con/Hiding

"Pokemon cosplayers needed!!!" The sign said in English, the rest written out in Hebrew.

Microwave stared at the sign. There was a picture of a smiling pikachu, a wriggling magikarp, and a dragonite. Ze had just managed to evade zir annoying stalkerish genestock with his overactive paternal instincts. 

( All ze had to do was mention Nina being at the convention and pointing. And then hover-dashing into the crowd. ) 

The paper had something to do with pokemon. Some kind of panel?? Hard to tell with it being written in Hebrew.

Sighing, the mutant slid the gyarados headcrest goggles over zir eyes. Google translate overlaid on zir heads up display. Microwave picked the Hebrew to English prompt and the translation scrolled across zir vision. 

"Pokemon cosplayers needed! Student film! No powers needed! Paid in food!! Call xxx-xxx-xxx!!! "

A perfect way to hide from zir genestock.


	13. Dentist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trying to modify your body when underage is hard.

"I'm not doing it." The dentist refused. The mutant in front of her looked far too young. She was irritated, dragged out of her office by an irate receptionist human. 

"What?! I'm emancipated by american law!" The....aquatic? mutant stared at her in entitled bafflement. (That tail looked too artificial for it to be natural, but too complex for it to be some trendy toy for a Modded human.) 

"Doesn;t matter, kid. Still need parental permission. And your records show that you have a living parent." 

The kid snarled and threw down several thick stacks of cash. Her eyes widened. 

"Here. I just want my teeth filed into shark teeth. And it's my own money!" The kid glared at her with unnatural eyes. 

He? Or she, hard to tell with kids these days...fanned out the bills on the table, wafting them under her nose. 

Great. Not only was it an annoying kid, it was one with too much money. 

She pinched the bridge of her nose. This was going to be a long day. The cash was tempting, dealing with the healthcare humans was always a headache. And there was that vacation she's been meaning to take....

"Uh, Ma'am? Records show the patient's father is one Magnus Eisenhardt..."

An extremely long day.


	14. The Electro-Magnetic Clinic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Genosha, mutants with similar powers are usually sent to the same clinic that specializes in treating mutants with similar power-sets.

"The fuck are you here for?" 

X-18 glared at zir genestock, hot anger displacing anxiety. Ze was still sore about waking up in his home and having to fight for zir right to leave. 

"You stalking me? Because dude..." 

Both of them were sitting in the waiting room for blood test results, X-18's cybernetic fishtail stretched out from the seat, resting on a footrest. Spines rippled in warning as ze genestock had the sheer balls to sit next to zir. 

"Contrary to popular belief, my child, I have health issues just like any other mutant." Magnus glared back, eyes glinting with a dangerous edge. 

"And what brings you here, my dear?" Magnus voice was soft, but X-18 could see his fingers slowly tighten over his arm-rest. His repressed magnetic field threatened to spill over zir own. 

"None of your business." Ze snapped back, field flaring out and pushing ze genestock's field away. 

X-18 had no intention of telling zir genestock, ze was here for the results of their latest bloodtest on zir testosterone levels.   
\---  
"The fuck? Really, again?" 

X-18 hissed out in mangled Hebrew, the words learned from the Google translate scrolling past on zir goggle HUD. 

"Yes, really my dear. And it's pronounced...." Magnus repeated the crass words in perfect Hebrew. "I expect more from my bloodline." He smiled as he saw his feral child frown at the assertion of their shared bond. 

X-18 glared at Quicksilver and Magnus. Ze had just levitated into the clinic, needing another draw of blood to convince the doctors that ze hormonal work was on track. It was a pain convincing them that ze needed the hormones and it wasn't just a phase or something medically unneeded approved by inferior flatscans. (Their words, not zirs) 

Quicksilver sighed and turned to Magnus. "Tate, shut it. Otherwise yougonnamakethemleave." For once, the Genoshan Lord said nothing but his forehead crinkled in disapproval. 

"Don't bother, speedy. I'm rescheduling my blood draw."


	15. Under the Blankets

It was nice underneath the blankets. Warm, soft, cozy. 

With zir tail in repair, 18 just wore a simple tail-shaped blanket over the leg stumps. 

Ze did not want the world to see such insecurities, the thought brought panic. 

Magneto's room was one of the most secure in his manor. 

He kept it open to his offspring though X18 made it clear to leave nary a trace. Against zir better judgement, ze felt safe here. 

The clock ticked. Magneto was due to be home in thirty minutes. 

The man kept to a strict schedule, always sure to be home in time for the family dinner served every night. 

Not wanting to face questions, the cyborg slid out of the bed and zombie-scrambled over to the X-36A and X-36B's room to take refuge.

Ze bit back pain as ze did so. Ze wore the tail for a reason, scrambling on all fours hurt. 

Walking with prosthetics hurt. With the fishtail and its hovertech, ze didn't have to feel any pain pressing down on the stumps.


	16. Magnus/Choking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Magnus watches Chayyim free dive for the first time.

Magnus Eisenhardt, Lord of Genosha, Father of the mutant race...

frowned at the dark waters before him. 

His youngest had dived in several minutes prior. 

Healthy members of non-aquatic homo superior and their more primitive brethren, sapiens, averaged breath holding at a minute. 

He exhaled, feeling his heartbeats speeding up.

This won't do. 

He knew Chayim was gifted in the water but...

they hadn't surfaced. 

Thoughts of the worst case scenario flitted in the back of his mind. 

Inhaling, Magnus scanned his magnetic senses deep into the fathoms below. 

Movement. 

Chayim's magnetic jewelry moved swiftly through the water.

His little one was still alive.

Good. 

Still, he worried and he reached. One finger beckoning his offspring as he ripped them out of the water and back onto dry land. 

Chayim, dragged out of the water, glared at him and cursed in several different languages. 

Better angry then dead.


	17. Chava and Nina/ Runaways

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Timeline in which Chava runs away with Nina.

"I want to go home." Nina whined. She was cold and lonely. She couldn't feel anything out here. Just her sister, herself, and some trees. Bugs buzzed, chirped, hopped, and flew everywhere. But they are mere pinpricks of feeling while the trees felt slow and sluggish compared to the warm quickness of mammalian minds. 

Chava's nanites swarmed over Nina as a blanket of sisterly comfort made real. The skittering of the nanites chased the cold away

"You know its better out here." Chava replied. 

Nina sighed, her sister was right, unable to argue against her. Here, she could go outside and not drown in the massive ocean of emotion that was Genosha. She could draw comfort from her family like she used to as a child, before everyone else blinded her with their raw constant animal emotions. 

"I hope Tate isn't hurt." 

Guilt curled in her stomach, choking her voice. 

"Dad's blind." Chava replied, laying back on a silvery nanite cloud.

"He would want us to be happy and your happier out here right?" 

Nina stayed silent, unsure of what she wanted.


	18. Daken and 'Waves/Hearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hearts, in which Daken/Akihiro and 'Waves (OC) , survivors of Transigen, talk shit as they eat dolphin meat in the middle of the ocean.
> 
> Reposted, was posted separately, that fic is now deleted.

"Aki, stop letting your food go cold. Ff---" 'Waves hissed.

"Nah, look this is the last time. It's just better when hot. Beating...." Daken held the heart to his face, nuzzling the heart's fading beats. Blood smeared across his face, as he dragged his tongue over the organ.

"Dude, dude, just stop." 'Waves looked slightly envious, the transhumanist mutant eyeing the dolphin heart with a hungry look. The heart gave a final beat as it cooled down. 'Waves hovering fishtail scraped through the carcass as ze got closer.

Daken snarled, "I'll finish it the way I want to."

His claws snickted out in warning.

'Waves rolled zir eyes and shook zir head. Sparks danced across zir claws and ze zapped the heart, keeping it beating. A pulse of microwaves kept the heart hot.

"And that's why you keep me around." 'Waves smirked.

" Shut it, you little shit." Daken replied, as he bit into the heart.

"Hey, if it weren't for me, all us labrats been stuck with nothing but tasteless cold gruel for food!"

"If there was food. If." Daken said and looked his lab-sibling in the eye, his fangs digging into the heart. He sheathed his bone claws and dug around in his pack, retrieving a flask of cold tea.

"Warm this."

"NOW you want me to."

"Whose a good microwave? You areeeee." Daken grinned, mocking 'Waves. Voice and pheromones mimicked the sickly sweet saccharine voices of the trainers from Transigen. Those flatscans had always reeked of rotting fruit to him, false love that covered up pity and apathy to the juvenile weapons under their care.

"Fuck off, Aki." 'Waves snapped back, as ze tore off another piece off the freshly killed dolphin.

"You wanted my food warm, Fishneto." Daken tossed the tea flask at 'Waves, who caught it on reflex. Another microwave pulse heated the tea and dolphin meat.

"Don't call me that!" The electro-magnetic mutant hissed out. "I'm nothing like him." Ze then screwed off the top from the bottle and started slurping the tea down.

"GIVE IT BACK!!" Daken leapt at 'Waves, boneclaws unfurled as he dumped out pheromones attempting to lull the other lab survivor into complacency.

The cyborg just laughed in his face and hovered out of the way, dodging the pounce and poof of pheromones. Daken skidded onto the carcass and hit the side of the boat. 'Waves dropped the flask of tea and Daken felt it hit the top of his skull.

More pieces of dolphin meat hit the wall as Daken dodged it.

"Finish your food, Aki." 'Waves cackled from the top of the sail's mast.


	19. Chocolate Goat Milk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Content warning for starvation mention, holocaust mention, eating issues mention.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was posted separately. Deleted that copy and reposting it here since I don't really consider this snippet to be fic canon any more.

Daken leaned back on his chair, it tilted at a precarious angle. He was cramming bloody steak into his mouth with his right hand and carving up more steak with his left hand's claws.

The kitchen door slid open. Magnus strode in. He rolled his eyes back and sighed at Daken, snapped his fingers and the chair tilted back flat onto the floor.

Dakkon scowled and tried to lean back again, but the chair stayed put. A fork and knife flew out of the cabinet and slid next to Daken's plate. "For Hashem's sake child, have some table manners." The fridge door opened behind Magnus.

A metal flask of goat milk floated out and a steel cup jumped out of the dishwasher and into Magnus' hand.

"You're not my dad."

"That may be so, but you, are still under my roof, eating the food I have graciously provided."

"Yeah, I get it." Daken grumbled, slicing up the steak with a knife. "Your forgetting something."

Daken groaned, snagged a napkin and smeared it against his claws and face. Crimson stained the cloth. "Better." Magnus turned his attention back to the goat milk. Another cup leapt over to Dakkon and the flask poured itself into Dakkon's cup. "Hey-" "

"Growing mutants need their calcium." Magnus cut off the youth. "Don't leave this room until you're done eating." "This other cup is for Chaim."

Magnus strode into the family room of his manor, eyeing the lab created mutant that shared his bloodline. Chaim was half asleep, face burrowed into the soft couch. One of his capes left the synth wrapped as a burrito. Magnus tucked the soft nanoweave around Chaim. Their artificial fish tail took up the whole span, so Magnus contented himself by settling onto a nearby floating recliner.

 

With the words, "DO NOT STARTLE" emblazoned on his offspring's back in several different languages, Magnus fought the temptation to waken his child to have them drink the cup of milk. Both them and Dakkon were painfully short for their ages, the unfortunate result from them being lab-born. He left the cup on the side-table and geared himself for several hours of paperwork.

\---

Chaim woke up an hour later. Ze was about to start prepping for zir evening fishing when Magnus' deep voice jolted them out of zir comfortable sleepy state of mind.

"Drink it."

"Don't do that!" Half of zir tail started to fade out, the visibile light bending to make zir invisible. No no NOPE, loosing control only made Magnus want to hover uncomfortably and coddle zir. The man, while well-meaning, did not believe in self-autonomy for those below an arbitrary age.

Magnus sighed. " My child, if I wished to surprise you, I would've woken you an hour ago."

'Waves eyes flickered around the room, looking for an escape route. Ze's back to the couch with Magnus uncomfortably close. Before ze could formulate a plan to leave, a cup of warm milk was thrusted into zir hands.

'Waves stared at the cup of heated chocolate goat milk in zir hands suspiciously.

Ze sniffed it.

It smelled like normal chocolate goat milk.

It looked like normal chocolate goat milk.

But years in the lab with drugged food had taught 'Waves to be wary.

"I'm okay, I'll drink this later."

 

\------

This was frustrating.

Extremely so.

All his other offspring had been raised in relative safety and seclusion, away from danger, in the country, he had toiled so hard to found.

Chaim was the unfortunate exception, having been born out of stolen dna and engineered by Transigen.

He took mental note of Chaim's skittishness and waryness. Their reaction was unfortunately reminding of his own hyper-awareness, a side effect of Schidt's experiments and abuse towards him.

Still, children did need to eat and to distract Chaim, Magnus thrust the milk onto their hands.

Only for Chaim to put the cup back after inspecting it.

Ze put the cup on the side table, next to zir couch, the tail taking up the whole span of the seat.

Magnus looked over the cup of milk and at Chaim's lean frame and the visible ribs under the layer of muscle. He pushed back the memories of starving children from the camps and mutant kids with nothing to eat.

He remembered too much, the memories of a gnawing stomach, of starvation being his only companion after his mother's murder.

Of food being a award for him being good.

Of him refusing to eat.

Of him being force fed because Schmidt wanted a healthy weapon.

Chaim's flickering wary gaze broke him out of his dark reverie.

"I insist, child. You need to grow."(edited)  
The metal cup floated off the table and back to 'Wave's hands. Magnus watched as the youth sighed and pulled something from under the blanket.

"And that is? "

Interesting. Magnus quirked an eyebrow at it, levitating the device out of his child's clawed hands to inspect it. "Hey, give it back!"

Microwave hovered off the couch, reaching for zir food scanner. The steel cup of milk floated safely away.

Magnus reluctantly threw up a forcefield to keep Chaim away. It was some kind of food scanner.

Ze scrambled towards it, but Magnus' force field kept zir away. He read the food scanner.

" I see. You really think I would poison or drug your food, my dear?" Magnus snapped.

Anger flared in his throat, his twisting stomach birthing irritation towards those ungrateful.

"My child, you are not the only who has suffered."

Magnus peeled back his sleeve, faded numbers testament to horrors unleashed during the Shoah.

Chaim paled, slinking back under the blanket out of shame.

"I too know the pain of hunger, now eat."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Genosha most commonly has goat milk because cows take up too much space. :P Magnus would want his country to be self-sufficent as possible.


	20. Magda and Eel - Mask

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newer character study, changed 'Waves name to Eel. Sketching out the relationship with Magda Eisenhardt and Eel. Bova is a genoshan social worker while Amp is a prosthetic engineer that fostered Eel before Genosha.

"I don't have legs." Eel said, tone mixed with confusion and scorn. 

With Eel wearing a leviathan mask, what they called their "real face", Magda could not read her foster child's facial emotions. It was reisin, sculpted to resemble a hammerhead shark, its jaws capable of opening up to reveal Eel's "eating face", the scarred and anxious youth she had seen in her office in the prior week.

Bova, Amperage, and the care charts had warned her of this so it didn't bother her. An unorthodox solution to electro-magnetic overload and anxiety of showing emotions, but her patient's health came first. 

Instead she focused on the clenched fins pinned to her foster child's prosthetic tail and the once blue-lights fading into an ugly bruised yellow. The fluke flicked back and forth, in the equivalent of a shaking leg. 

Ze raised zir head to "looked" up at her from zir spot on the beach, ze curled on zir side next to the fire, skewered fish sticks jammed into the sand. The mask's painted and sculpted visage stared at her disdainfully. 

She kneeled down, on the other side of the fire, to give Eel space. Her flats sunk into the sand. She raised her dark brown hands to show she was un-armed. 

"I'm aware, but don't need you need shoes for your prosthetic legs?" 

Eel's tail fluke flopped listlessly onto the sand. 

The hammerhead face shook no. 

"I don't use them. Don't bring this up again." 

Her foster child rolled over, zir dorsal fin was now facing her. 

" Go away. Your magnetic field is blocking the local currents I was watching." 

Magda sighed. Even though her own brood was just as difficult at times, rejection was never easy.

"Okay, but take video of you eating. Bova needs to make sure you're eating enough." 

Eel threw back zir head and forward, the mask clanging in agitation. "Ugh, fine. Just like the labs."

The streaks of hazard lights throughout the tail started to bleed-red before fading back into a bright-orange. 

"I pick the food, right?" 

"Yes." 

The lights faded back to yellow. 

"Good."


	21. Nina and Magda/Shoes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Terms  
> Schatzi - Treasure (german)  
> Ketzelah - Kitten (yiddish)  
> Tate - Dad (yiddish)

"Schatzi, you're taller then me!" 

Magda smiled up at her youngest daughter, Nina. She was already taller then her, but with the black heels, Nina now towered. Just like the rest of her sisters.

Kicking off the heels, Nina sat down on the bench and leaned against her mother. The familial love acted as a buffer against the swirling emotions of the city-state outside.

"Are you sure Tate would like them?" 

"Of course, ketzelah." Magda replied, her worn brown fingers combing through Nina's long chestnut hair. 

"You're growing into a fine young woman." Nina simply nodded, basking in the warm emotions of her mother's affections.


End file.
